The continuing process of globalization has not only intensified international and transnational relations, it has also accentuated resistance to international institutions. This is evident in the aggravation of protests against liberal economic models, rejection of international rules and open criticism of ‘western values’. The core question of this project is how international rule is related to transnational resistance. The nature of rule in each sub-order of global governance manifests itself in a decentralized heterarchy that bears little resemblance to the classical concept of rule in the national state. Because of this diffusion, the character of rule is better recognized in the resistance that is directed against it than by trying to perceive it directly from official statutes and rules.

The projects focusing collaboratively on dissidence study where and how resistance is articulated and against what forms of rule it is directed. The goal is to survey the theoretical conceptions of dissidence, referring broadly to resistance against the prevailing order that uses unconventional modes of organization and articulation, and to chart these empirically. The projects contributing to this program are: